Britons stockpiling water and food tins but not panic buying, figures show

<p>Shoppers appear to have taken government’s Be Ready campaign seriously, retail analysts say</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2026/nov/10/nvidia-shareholder-lawsuit-jensen-huang-relationship-suspected-chinese-spy-fbi-trump-bank-of-england-latest-news-updates">Business live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>British shoppers have been stocking up on essentials such as bottled water, tinned goods and hand sanitiser, but did not panic buy after the government advised people to prepare for emergencies, shopping data has shown.</p><p>Sales of essentials jumped in the 10 days after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/22/britain-prepare-infrastructure-attacks-hostile-states-wes-streeting">the government launched its Be Ready campaign</a>, which encourages households to prepare for up to three days in the event of disruption to essential services from incidents such as cyber-attacks or extreme weather.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/nov/10/britons-stockpiling-water-food-tins-panic-buy-be-ready">Continue reading...</a>